Dante's Inferno (video game)

Dante's Inferno
Developer(s)	Visceral Games Artificial Mind and Movement (PSP)
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts
Writer(s)	Will Rokos
Composer(s)	Garry Schyman
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable
Genre(s)	Third-person hack and slash, action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

Dante's Inferno is an upcoming third-person action-adventure game to be published by Electronic Arts and in development by Visceral Games (formerly EA Redwood Shores). The game is very loosely based on Inferno, the first book of Dante Alighieri's epic poem, The Divine Comedy. The story of the game is written by Will Rokos, who wrote the film Monster's Ball.

DC Comics' Wildstorm imprint will also carry a serialized adaptation of the game sequence, beginning in February 2010.

Gameplay

File:DanteInferno Game.jpg

A screenshot of the game in early development.

The game has been touted as being similar to the God of War games, in which there are light and heavy attacks as well as magic. Dante's primary weapon is a scythe, which he steals from Death itself, as seen in the opening preview of the game. He also has magical powers such as a holy cross (given to him by Beatrice before her death) which fires a burst of light that destroys anything in its path. It has not yet been confirmed if there are more powers or weapons that Dante can use. Also, there is a feature called beast taming where, in the game, demons ride huge beasts and if Dante is able to kill the rider, he can control the beast. Depending which beast is controlled, he can use them for different attacks such as breathing fire on his enemies or bashing them. He is also able to condemn or absolve his foes and many damned shades throughout the journey, gaining righteous or unholy points with each absolution or condemnation. The resulting effect from the more righteousness points attained, the more powerful holy cross attacks become and the more unholy points are achieved, the more powerful Dante's scythe becomes.

Story

Characters

Dante

The game's primary protagonist, Dante is depicted as a knight of the Third Crusade who has a red tapestry detailing the events of his life sewn into his chest. Unlike Dante's portrayal of himself in the Divine Comedy as being weak and timid, even being horrified at the sight of demons and evil spirits, this Dante is depicted as being muscular and skilled in weaponry and magic, as well as having a horrific past. His weapons are a scythe obtained from Death himself and a cross he received as a gift from Beatrice before leaving for the Crusades (his first weapon in the beginning was a Halberd) .

Lucifer

The central antagonist of the game, not much is known of Lucifer in this depiction aside from his need to have a soul destined for Heaven in order to escape the prison he was placed in as punishment for his rebellion, which results in Lucifer capturing Beatrice moments after her death. He makes several appearances as a dark, spectral shadow before Dante faces him in person and is capable of projecting a spectral form to capture the souls of deceased humans.

Death

A hooded phantasm who appears to Dante as the Grim Reaper. He appears moments after Dante is assassinated during the Crusades, determined to punish Dante for his crimes. He is killed by Dante after his scythe is stolen from him. Dante uses the scythe throughout the game as his primary weapon.

Francesco

A former Crusader and Beatrice's brother. Francesco was a close friend of Dante's during the Crusades. Beatrice wished for Dante to protect him, but Francesco died during the Crusades and was punished in the afterlife by being mutated into a disfigured parody of his human form. Now a demon, he eagerly awaits the opportunity to kill Dante, who he blames for his descent into demonhood. As a demon, he carries several swords stabbed into his back which he uses as melee/projectile weapons and has half of his face warped into a plant like appearance.

Virgil

The spirit of a long deceased poet, Virgil acts as a guide to Dante (similar to his role in the poem), explaining each one of the circles of Hell and their purposes. As such, all of his dialogue comes from the original poem.

Beatrice

Dante's now deceased fiance, she serves as Dante's primary motivation as he goes deeper into Hell to rescue her from being used by Lucifer as a way for him to escape from Hell. She is killed prior to Dante's arrival in Florence after being stabbed to death by unknown assailants. She also (according to the dialogue) seems to have some connections to Lucifer and Virgil, but what these connections are, if any, have yet to be explained.

Minos

The temperamental, cynical judge of the dead, Minos appears as a half serpent, half human demigod with a large crown on his head. He is also blind, relying on his senses of smell and touch to find his enemies. He is killed after Dante uses a torture device to split his face in half.

Cleopatra

A former Egyptian royalty now turned into a demon after her death. She is the guardian of the second circle of Hell, where the lustful are punished. She is also extremely narcissistic, seeing herself as beautiful while the other shades and demons can see how repulsive she truly is.

Plot

Dante's Inferno is based on the first part of Dante's Divine Comedy. The player controls Dante, a veteran of the Third Crusade, who chases his beloved Beatrice and attempts to free her soul from Lucifer, who needs to wed a heaven-bound soul to break free of Hell and make another attempt to take over the Throne of God. As his pursuit takes him through the monstrous entities within the nine Circles of Hell to save Beatrice, Dante must face his own sins, his family's past and war crimes.

• Prologue - the City of Acre to the Gates of Hell
  • Dante, the game's protagonist is shown stitching a bloody tapestry into his chest while stuck in a "dark forest" and screams in pain as the final stitch is finished. The tapestry immediately begins to show flashbacks of his life prior to the game's story. In the first flashback, Dante and his fellow knights are ordered by King Richard to capture the city of Acre and secure an artifact by Saladin. During the raid on the Citadel of Acre, Dante is attacked by an assassin and left for dead. As soon as he is about to die, Death appears to inform Dante that he is to suffer "eternal damnation for [his] sins." and that those around Dante's life will also be punished. Horrified by the realization of the bishop's deception of their crusade being "holy," Dante decides to redeem himself. In an act of defiance, he clashes with Death and takes his scythe as a war trophy after using it to slice its previous owner in half. He returns home to Florence with a determination to live his life in peace only to find that his lover, Beatrice Portinari, has been murdered. Beatrice appears to Dante as a spirit, telling him that she knew Dante would come for her. After this, Dante witnesses Lucifer drag her into Hell. Giving chase, Dante begins his journey to save Beatrice, cutting through an army of zombies to make it into a church where he sees Beatrice being tortured as her words of him breaking his vow to her confuse him. Desperate for more assistance, Dante blesses a holy cross Beatrice gave to him when first made their vow of being true to one another, and pursues her to the otherside. After meeting the spirit of Virgil, who knows of Dante's crimes and agrees to help him in his quest, Dante uses a demonic beast to open the Gates of Hell and begins his descent into Limbo.
  • Confirmed Bosses: Death
• The First Circle of Hell - Limbo
  • Dante begins his descent into Hell, fighting demons, unbaptized babies and other tormented souls. He rides on the back of Charon the ferryman, who he later kills by forcing a demon to rip his head off, to reach the serpentine King Minos, the Judge of the Damned, whom he must defeat to continue his journey. In the end, Dante manages to kill the creature by placing Minos' tongue on a torture device and spins the wheel around to split his face in half.
  • Confirmed Bosses: Charon, King Minos.
• The Second Circle of Hell - Lust
  • Reaching the second circle of Hell, Dante discovers Lucifer is personally holding Beatrice's soul, even dressing her as his hellish bride and deceiving her into thinking Dante broke his vow to her. Dante must journey to the phallic tower in the center of this circle's endless hurricane to defeat Queen Cleopatra, who rules as one of Lucifer's regents.
  • Confirmed Boss: Cleopatra
• The Third Circle of Hell - Gluttony
  • Having defeated both King Minos and Cleopatra, Dante journeys to the next circle, one populated by gluttonous demons, great landscapes made of living organs, storms of human waste and giant gorger worms with insatiable appetites. There he must face the "great worm", Cerberus, a mass of worm-like stomach protruding from an open maw.
  • Confirmed Boss: Cerberus
• The Fourth Circle of Hell - Greed
  • Defeating Cerberus, Dante enters the circle of Greed, which is mechanical in nature compared to the previous circles. Within the circle are occupants who are boiled alive in molten gold below, condemned for being avaricious or prodigal with their riches. In this "factory of torture," Dante will be faced with the horrendous puzzles of the Wheel of Fortune which is used to deliver punishment, and come face to face against the fallen god Plutus, a living golden statue.
  • Confirmed Boss: Plutus
• The Fifth Circle of Hell - Anger
  • Dante continues to search for Beatrice and confronts Phlegyas, a giant, flaming demon who Dante unknowingly rode across the River Styx: a toxic marsh which eternally drowns the wrathful and the sullen. Escaping the behemoth's fury, he witnesses the beast entering the City of Dis, guarded by the powerful Fallen Angels, and he must follow if he is to save Beatrice.
  • Confirmed Boss: Phlegyas
• The Sixth Circle of Hell - Heresy
  • Upon entrance into Hell's capital, the infernal City of Dis, Dante descends into the lair of the Heretics who are encased within flaming tombs and nailed to inverted burning crosses. The Dark Priests, necromancers and conjurers are free to worship the "Fallen One" and guard this circle. The souls of the ancient followers (Ex. Abraham) are trapped here as well, waiting the arrival of "The One" and their redemption.

Possible Bosses: The only circle void of a boss.

• The Seventh Circle of Hell - Violence
  • Awaiting Dante in Hell's seventh circle are the three abominable domains in which the fearsome Archdemons watch over the violent damned according to their particular sin: the first two being Phlegethon, the endless river of boiling blood which torments those who are violent against others and The Wood of Suicides for those who are violent against themselves. Within the Desert of Burning Sands for those violent against God, Dante encounters his former best friend and brother of Beatrice, Francesco, whose death during the Crusades was his doing. Now a horribly disfigured version of his former self, Francesco desires revenge against Dante for his state of being.
  • Confirmed Bosses: Francesco.
• The Eighth Circle of Hell - Fraud
  • Fraud is an extremely dark place that holds those who used deception and lies to their own gain. It is split into ten ditches that each hold a different type of liar that are being punished in different ways. This circle is also home to every single demon and monster that appeared in the other circles. Each step down Fraud is a small arena in which Dante will have to fight his way through the creatures of hell.
    • Possible Bosses: Geryon, The Malebranche, Nimrod or Antaeus
• The Ninth Circle of Hell - Treachery
  • Having journeyed through all of Hell, confronted his past and atoned for his sins, Dante must now face Lucifer in his true form: a giant, three-headed demon. Only by defeating the Prince of Darkness himself can Dante save Beatrice, and his own soul.
  • Confirmed Boss: Lucifer

Feature film

Dante's Inferno has been optioned by Universal Pictures. The screenwriter for the film version remains unknown. Film Roman, the Starz Entertainment unit behind Dead Space: Downfall will release a direct-to-DVD version of Dante's that is set to be released simultaneously with the video game. The only known detail about the Dante's Inferno project is that separate anime studios are being tapped to create visuals of the nine levels of the Inferno. Starz Entertainment is looking to sell both animated films to international TV buyers at the MIP market.

Marketing

Electronic Arts partnered with GameStop for a one-day promotion of Dante's Inferno on September 9, 2009. Those that pre-ordered the game were offered a $6.66 discount, the Number of the Beast. In addition, EA conducted an unsolicited mailing in which cheques for $200 were sent to selected video game critics, with the following note: "In Dante's Inferno, Greed is a two-headed beast. Hoarding wealth feeds one beast, and squandering it satiates the other. By cashing this check you succumb to avarice by hoarding filthy lucre, but by not cashing it, you waste it, and thereby surrender to prodigality. Make your choice and suffer the consequence for your sin. And scoff not, for consequences are imminent."A viral marketing campaign was also launched featuring a website and ad for a fake religious game called "Mass: We Pray." When attempting to order the game, the website deems you a heretic and plays to a trailer for Dante's Inferno, as well as providing links to the related Facebook app.

A playable demo was released for PlayStation 3 on December 10, 2009, and for Xbox 360 on December 24, 2009.

A video posted by Veronica Belmont on YouTube revealed another promotional item sent to the Qore and PlayStation: The Official Magazine offices. The package contained a small wooden box which, when opened, played the Rick Astley song Never Gonna Give You Up, thus 'Rickrolling' the journalists that received it. The music could not be stopped through any means other than destroying the box using the hammer and goggles provided. Belmont is shown destroying the box, having given in to Wrath as the note then found within the box predicted.

"Go To Hell" Application

Visceral Games created Go To Hell, a Dante's Inferno-themed application that lets users condemn their friends, groups, or photos to one of the nine circles of hell. They can then vote to punish or absolve them, or torment them with activities like beast massage or succubus castration.

"Battle of the Damned" RPG

The Facebook application developer Lolapps, Inc. similarly adapted a Facebook role-playing game, "Battle of the Damned", that lets users fight through the nine circles of hell to rescue their murdered and damned wife. It rose nearly 1 million monthly active users in less than a week after launching.

Development

Controversy

Prior to Inferno's release, in June 2009, a protest began during E3 2009 in San Diego to oppose the game. Around 20 protesters, claiming to be from a church in Ventura County, held up signs that called the game sacrilegious and labeled it possibly insensitive to peoples beliefs. Protesters even went as far as calling EA the anti-christ. This led to many people accusing EA of creating this as a marketing hoax to promote the game. A few days later, it was officially confirmed by EA spokesperson Tammy Scachter that they had hired people to protest the game and that there was no actual protest.

Later, in October 2009, it was announced that the game would include an Xbox 360 achievement and a PlayStation 3 trophy entitled "Bad Nanny", which rewards players for killing unbaptized infants. This sparked a conflict with the International Nanny Association (INA), in which they encouraged supporters to oppose the game. The INA claimed that the achievement is offensive to real nannies and that it also promotes real-life violence. In retaliation, the INA asked the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) to omit the reward and elements of infant violence. The ESRB insisted that its role was merely to label products appropriately, not to censor them, so their request could not be met. Despite this, the INA is still boycotting the game with hopes of it being changed before release.

Special Editions

The PlayStation 3 will release a Divine Edition of Dante's Inferno. Along with the actual game, it will include developer commentaries, a Wayne Barlow digital art book, the game's soundtrack, the Dark Forest premium downloadable content pack (available March), and a digital copy of the complete Longfellow translation of Dante Alighieri's Inferno. This edition costs the same as the standard edition. It is unknown which regions this version will release in.

Europe will exclusively receive the Death Edition of Dante's Inferno. It contains a player costume of Isaac Clark from Dead Space, a making-of documentary, the documentary "Dante in History", the full soundtrack, documentary on the creation of music and audio, digital artbook edited by visual designer Wayne Barlowe, over 10 minutes of scenes from Dante's Inferno An Animated Epic, digital reprint of the complete poem in English. It will be available for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. In the UK the Death Edition is a GAME exclusive and retails for £10.00 more than the standard.

External links

• Official website
• Dante's Inferno at IMDb